Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to support job retention during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) has been in place since March 2020 and has now been extended to March 2021. This extension will support businesses during the latest national restrictions by paying up to 80% of wages for furloughed employees.

Up until 15 November 2020 the scheme has helped 1.2 million employers and 9.6 million employees.